Larose Forest is a man-made forest in the

United Counties of Prescott and Russell The United Counties of Prescott and Russell (french: Comtés unis de Prescott et Russell) are consolidated counties located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is L'Orignal. It was created as a result of a merger between Russe ...

, Ontario, Canada. It is about east of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, straddling the boundary of

Clarence-Rockland Clarence-Rockland is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell on the Ottawa River. Clarence-Rockland is located immediately to the east of Ottawa and is considered part of the Prescott and Russell County. ...

and The Nation municipality. The forest, part of the of forest in Ontario, is named after Ferdinand Larose, and is owned and managed by the county. Recreational activities in the multi-purpose forest include hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, hunting and trapping, animal watching, and horseback, ATV and snowmobile riding. The forest is also used for small-scale logging operations. The forest is the second-largest man-made forest in

southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

and in 2011 was called an "unappreciated world leader as an example of environmental

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

History

All of

Eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,763,186 in 2016) (french: Est de l'Ontario) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River. It sh ...

was originally forested with large stands of maple, white cedar, white pine and tamarack, as well as red pine wherever the soil was sandy. Other than trapping for the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

, little to no human development occurred and the area remained untouched until the end of the 18th century. This changed in 1805 due to the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and demand for lumber for England's navy and shipbuilding, resulting in a rapid growth of the logging industry in the Ottawa River basin. By the mid-19th century, logging reached its peak and the best stands of old-growth pines had been cut. To keep the lumber mills in Lemieux, Fournier, Lalonde, Proulx, Riceville, and St. Isidore operating, smaller trees were also harvested. Additionally, in October 1897 the remaining vegetation was burned in a brush-clearing accident in the now-abandoned ghost town of Grant. This fire consumed large swathes of land from the initial site in a south-eastern direction, destroying the village of Casselman, which was still recovering from another devastating fire just 6 years prior. Much of this land thus became arable and suitable for agriculture, allowing Casselman to recover and rebuild. However, this left most of the county surrounding Grant as a blow-sand desert. This complete disruption of the ecosystem caused serious problems. Rivers that previously flowed year-round became intermittent or dried up, fires would burn out of control, the sandy soil eroded, and certain animal and plant species completely disappeared while other species proliferated to the point of becoming pests. The area was then known as the Bourget Desert. To address the problems, a replanting project was initiated in the 1920s, spearheaded by Ferdinand Larose who was the agricultural representative for the Counties of Prescott and Russell. In 1928, Larose persuaded the Russell County Council to purchase from private landowners for reforestation in the Bourget Desert, and that same year, the first were planted in red pine, with Leo Lapalm of Bourget as planting foreman. While the county owned the land, management was the responsibility of Ontario Department of Lands and Forests (now

Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry The Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario's provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands ...

). Additional land was purchased at a rate of about per year between 1945 and 1956. Tree planting continued throughout the following decades, increasing to about 1 million trees planted annually in the 1940s and 1950s. Initial plantings were mostly red pine, white pine, and white spruce. Poplar, birch, and other deciduous trees were later added. By the 1970s, most of the land had been reforested and planting was reduced to about 200,000 trees per year. By 2016, more than 18 million trees had been planted and the first seedlings planted in 1928 had grown to about in height. In 2000, the management responsibility of the forest reverted to the county. In 1989, Larose Forest won the first Ontario's Forest of the Year award, and in 2007, it was awarded

Forest Stewardship Council The Forest Stewardship Council A. C. (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests via timber certification. It is an example of a market-ba ...

(FDC) certification.

Climate

Based on the nearest climate station in Russell, the mean annual temperature in Larose Forest is for the period 1981–2010, up from for the period 1971–2000. January is the coldest month of the year (with a daily average temperature of ) and July is the warmest month (daily average temperature of ). Annual rainfall is and snowfall is , for a total precipitation of . Snow cover at the end of January and February was respectively. Due to this climate, Larose Forest is in plant

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

5a.

Ecology

Larose Forest is a forested island in the mostly agricultural landscape of the

Saint Lawrence Lowlands In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

. It can be divided into three main ecozones: softwood plantings, red maple stands, and wetlands. These areas contain a large variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, fish, vascular plants and mushrooms. The most common animals include deer, beavers, moose, turtles, butterflies and birds of prey. Soils are mostly acidic fine sands of the well-drained Uplands, imperfectly drained Rubicon, and poorly drained Saint-Samuel series, all of which have a classic

podzol In soil science, podzols are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of hum ...

appearance in undisturbed areas.

Flora

As of April 2015, 673 different vascular plant species have been identified in Larose Forest, including 77 regionally significant species, 8 provincially vulnerable or endangered species, as well as 1 critically endangered species in Ontario (large purple-fringed orchid/'' Platanthera grandiflora''). Additionally, 11

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

and 55

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

species are known to be present, of which 6 species are vulnerable in Ontario. The following are the predominant tree species in Larose Forest: *Broadleaf (about 30% of forest stands): ** ash-leaved maple ** grey birch ** poplar **

silver maple ''Acer saccharinum'', commonly known as silver maple, creek maple, silverleaf maple, soft maple, large maple, water maple, swamp maple, or white maple, is a species of maple native to the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canad ...

*Coniferous (about 57% of forest stands): **

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...

red pine ''Pinus resinosa'', known as red pine (also Norway pine in Minnesota), is a pine native to North America. Description Red pine is a coniferous evergreen tree characterized by tall, straight growth. It usually ranges from in height and in trun ...

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii'', native to the Ro ...

Fauna

The number of mammal species found in Larose Forest is 29, including big game animals

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

(''Alces alces''),

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

(''Odocoileus virginianus''), and

American black bear The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...

(''Ursus americana''). Other species include

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

(''Canis latrans''),

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

(''Vulpes vulpes''),

American mink The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink i ...

(''Mustela vison''),

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

(''Procyon lotor''),

snowshoe hare The snowshoe hare (''Lepus americanus''), also called the varying hare or snowshoe rabbit, is a species of hare found in North America. It has the name "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal's feet prevent it from sink ...

(''Lepus americanus''), and

Canadian beaver The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland ...

(''Castor canadensis''). The number of moose dropped considerably in the 1990s and 2000s. Whereas in 1994 the density of moose in Larose Forest was 7.0 moose per 10 km², it had reduced to 2.2 per 10 km² by 2007. In optimal conditions, Larose Forest should be able to sustain more than four times as many moose. As of September 2016, 144 bird species have been observed in Larose Forest, including 93 which were confirmed to breed in the forest. As of May 2015, 19 reptile and amphibian species have been observed, including: *

blue-spotted salamander The blue-spotted salamander (''Ambystoma laterale'') is a mole salamander native to the Great Lakes states and northeastern United States, and parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Their range is known to extend to James Bay to the north, an ...

(''Ambystoma laterale'') * eastern

red-backed salamander The red-backed salamander (''Plethodon cinereus'') is a small, hardy woodland salamander species in the family Plethodontidae. It is also known as the redback salamander, eastern red-backed salamander,Integrated Taxonomic Information System nter ...

(''Plethodon cinereus'') *

eastern newt The eastern newt (''Notophthalmus viridescens'') is a common newt of eastern North America. It frequents small lakes, ponds, and streams or nearby wet forests. The eastern newt produces tetrodotoxin, which makes the species unpalatable to predat ...

(''Notophthalmus viridescens'') *

gray treefrog The gray treefrog (''Dryophytes versicolor'') is a species of small arboreal holarctic tree frog native to much of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the eastern gray treefrog, northern gray tree ...

(''Hyla versicolor'') *

American bullfrog The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, po ...

(''Lithobates catesbeianus'') * green frog (''Lithobates clamitans'') *

northern leopard frog ''Lithobates pipiens''Integrated Taxonomic Information System nternet2012''Lithobates pipiens'' pdated 2012 Sept; cited 2012 Dec 26Available from: www.itis.gov/ or ''Rana pipiens'', commonly known as the northern leopard frog, is a species of le ...

(''Lithobates pipiens'') *

wood frog ''Lithobates sylvaticus'' or ''Rana sylvatica'', commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several nota ...

(''Lithobates sylvaticus'') *

common snapping turtle The common snapping turtle (''Chelydra serpentina'') is a species of large freshwater turtle in the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia ...

(''Chelydra serpentina'') – designated a Species of Special Concern * Midland painted turtle (''Chrysemys picta'') – designated a Species of Special Concern *

Blanding's turtle Blanding's turtle (''Emydoidea blandingii'') is a semi-aquatic turtle of the family Emydidae. This species is native to central and eastern parts of Canada and the United States. It is considered to be an endangered species throughout much of i ...

(''Emydoidea blandingii'') – designated Endangered *

eastern garter snake The eastern garter snake (''Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis'') is a medium-sized snake indigenous to North America. Taxonomy and etymology The scientific name ''Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis'' is a combination of Ancient Greek and New Latin that mea ...

(''Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis'') * red-bellied snake (''Storeria occipitomaculata'')

Fungi

As of September 2007, 506

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

species have been found in Larose Forest. As of September 2016, 70 species of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.United Counties of Prescott and Russell - Larose Forest
(official website)
Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club - Larose Forest: History and Ecology
Forests of Ontario Geography of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell